第236页 / 共734页

Now the Exaggerator is thought to have a tendency to lay claim to

things reflecting credit on him, both when they do not belong to

him at all and also in greater degree than that in which they

really do: whereas the Reserved man, on the contrary, denies

those which really belong to him or else depreciates them, while

the mean character being a Plain-matter-of-fact person is

Truthful in life and word, admitting the existence of what does

really belong to him and making it neither greater nor less than

the truth.

It is possible of course to take any of these lines either with

or without some further view: but in general men speak, and act,

and live, each according to his particular character and

disposition, unless indeed a man is acting from any special

motive.